Deutsche Bank in record profit April 27, 2010 DEUTSCHE Bank profits jumped by almost 50 per cent jump to €1.8bn euros (£1.6bn) for the first quarter. Germany’s largest lender said its corporate and investment banking arms had recorded record profits. The bank put aside €262m euros to cover bad loans in the first quarter, 50 per cent down on the same period last [...]
Imperial Tobacco sees rise in earnings April 27, 2010 IMPERIAL Tobacco , the world’s fourth-biggest cigarette maker, beat forecasts with a 16 per cent rise in half-year earnings and looked towards a better second half as recovery kicks in. The company, with cigarette brands including Lambert & Butler, West and Gauloises, said on it saw the downturn cut its volumes 3.7 per cent in [...]
Lloyds back in the black as bad debts ease April 27, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group has confirmed it has returned to profit for the first three months of this year. The company, which is 41 per cent-owned by the taxpayer, said it expected to continue to make profits throughout the rest of the year. It said the rate of “impairments” has improved – which effectively means it [...]
BP profits surge to £3.6bn on oil price rise April 27, 2010 OIL giant BP has seen its profits more than double to $5.6bn (£3.6bn) in the first three months of the year. Rising oil prices have helped to fuel the jump which is equivalent to 135 per cent on the same quarter last year. Oil prices averaged $76 a barrel in the first three months of [...]
PANTHER BOSS ON A TRIP INTO NOSTALGIA April 26, 2010 ANDREW Perloff, the eccentric chairman of property firm Panther Securities, has something of a cult following among City investors due to his penchant for using company results statements as an excuse to reminisce at length about life’s little quirks. But yesterday’s final results announcement was a corker even by Perloff’s own standards, ranging from fervent [...]
Osborne: hung house will paralyse the UK April 26, 2010 THERE is a “clear risk of economic paralysis, higher interest rates and a loss of market confidence” if the general election results in a hung parliament, George Osborne warned yesterday. Speaking in an exclusive interview with City A.M., the shadow chancellor said the Tories needed to win an overall majority so they could make “the [...]
Republicans block regulation debate April 26, 2010 REPUBLICANS gained enough US Senate votes yesterday to block debate on the financial regulation reform bill, dealing a blow to its Democratic backers and the Obama administration. The vote will send key lawmakers back to the negotiating table to hammer out a bipartisan compromise, with modified legislation expected to return to the Senate floor soon. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 26, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES FISHMEAL PRICES SCALE ALL-TIME HIGH The price of fishmeal, the key feedstuff for salmon and shrimp aquaculture, has surged to an all-time high after an earthquake wiped out processing plants in Chile, the world’s second-biggest exporter of the commodity, this year. The blow comes as the industry is already battling a supply squeeze [...]
Osborne fleshes out his reform plan April 26, 2010 OVER the past week, the election campaign has started to feel a little like Groundhog Day: the polls are barely changing, confirming that we are now in a three-way race pointing to a hung parliament; there are no new policies from any of the parties; it seems at times as if we are merely being [...]
Insurers criticise IMF tax plan April 26, 2010 Insurance lobby group The Geneva Association, yesterday wrote to the G20 group of nations criticising proposals to subject insurers to a global financial services tax, calling it unfair and deeming it detrimental to consumers. The group describes the tax proposals, as set out by the International Monetary Fund as “inappropriate and arbitrary”. The move by [...]